All session long, the Texas Medical Association has made it a priority to preserve and bolster medical education in Texas, with an emphasis on keeping the state’s budding medical talent within its borders.
On Tuesday, the Texas House of Representatives passed a bill that will help do just that, sending the measure to the governor’s desk.
Senate Bill 1490 by Sen. Brandon Creighton (R-Conroe) allows the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to ensure the availability of clerkships for Texas medical school students. The bill does so by regulating the board’s process to grant authorization to private, out-of-state medical schools and other professional schools to operate in Texas.
Under SB 1490, those out-of-state institutions could grant a professional degree only if the board finds that “sufficient placements are available to students for required field-based experience, such as clinicals or clerkships, for the proposed professional degree.”
The House vote on Tuesday was 120-17.
“Gold card bill” passes out of committee
The testimony of three TMA physicians Tuesday on the need to blunt prior authorization was enough for the Senate Finance Committee to approve a measure that would allow physicians to earn a “gold card” out of the preauthorization process.
The committee unanimously signed off on House Bill 3459 by Rep. Greg Bonnen, MD (R-Friendswood), which would allow physicians to earn an exemption from prior auth for certain services, if they had an 80% approval rate on that service the previous plan year.
In addition, HB 3459 would require health plans’ utilization reviews to be conducted by a physician in the same or similar specialty as the physician who requested the service. The doctor conducting the utilization review also would have to be licensed to practice medicine in Texas.
The committee’s approval came after testimony Tuesday by Austin oncologist Debra Patt, MD; San Antonio radiologist Zeke Silva III, MD; and Houston internist Lisa Ehrlich, MD. HB 3459 is now eligible for consideration by the full Senate.
Gender reassignment bill passes Senate
A Senate bill opposed by TMA that would criminalize gender-affirming care for children passed its parent chamber Tuesday.
Senate Bill 1311 by Sen. Bob Hall (R-Edgewood) would make it a crime to perform a host of surgeries on a person younger than 18 for “the purpose of transitioning a child’s biological sex,” including castration, vasectomies, hysterectomies, and mastectomies. It also would make it a crime to prescribe or administer puberty-blocking medication on children for the same purpose.
TMA has maintained opposition to the bill because of evidence showing the effectiveness of gender-affirming care. TMA also believes that such care shouldn’t be stigmatized or criminalized, and that the decision on whether to pursue such care should be between patients, their families, and their physician.